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NAMA tightens aviation security surveillance
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) would continue to ensure that its surveillance system is not compromised to ensure high level aviation security, the agency’s Managing Director, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, has said.
Akinkuotu spoke at the just-concluded inaugural International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Aviation Security Symposium (AVSEC) 2017 in Montreal, Canada.
The NAMA MD stated that if surveillance system and communication are compromised, it is quite likely that it will impact on safety, adding: “So, even for us in NAMA, security is everybody’s business.”
He said: “Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) is not directly responsible agency, but I have assets that need to be secured for us to be safe. If my navigational aids (NAVAIDS) are compromised, if my surveillance system is compromised, if my communication system is compromised, it is quite likely that it will impact on safety.”
Akinkuotu stated that the security level should be maintained for the purpose of maintaining security at the nation’s aerodromes.
He also noted that the levy should be channelled to guarantee security of aviation system, stressing there should be appropriate utilisation of such funds.
The Federal Government reportedly earned N38 billion in 2016 from air passengers flying out of the country through the nation’s international airports.
The fund is earned through Air Travellers’ Security Charge (ATSC), which government introduced four years ago.
The levy, which is collected on behalf of government by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), is remitted into a dedicated account operated by the regulatory agency and transferred to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by the agency’s banker.
The agency, through the airlines, levy all air travellers departing from any international airport $20 each as security levy. The levy is inbuilt into air travellers’ tickets and paid into a dedicated account provided by the industry regulator.
His words: “I think we do have a security levy in place; we should maintain it. We should harness, harvest and utilise it. I do not think we should necessarily let it sit down. We should use it to guarantee the security of aviation system. There should be appropriate utilisation of such funds. I do not accept that we should stop it. We have seen in the world today that there will always be criminal activities.
“The criminal activities keep changing their patterns, they keep changing their methodology. So, we need to have means to be able to detect and prevent criminal activities. Sometimes we might use the fund to educate not only the aviation security stakeholders but also the common people.”
Akinkuotu said the concept of unpredictability helps authorities to vary continuously how to monitor and detect or interact with the system, such that they are able to detect terrorist activities.
He said: “If they know your pattern, let us say hypothetically if they know that the facility is being swept at 12 midnight every day and don’t forget that criminals have sources of information just as security agencies. They may know that the place is being swept by 12 midnight and wait till 1am and he comes in to commit the crime at 1 o’clock.
“So, for you to militate against such act, you vary your security methodology. Therefore, that is unpredictability. You sweep a place with Canine dog and people know the dog is used to sweep the place; they might do something to harm the dog. But instead of a dog, you are coming with Twelve-armed people. We as a country need to create pattern where the methodology of search, detection is not predictable. It is a way of confusing the criminals.”
To curb threats, the NAMA boss said the country needs not just technology, but better technology, adding that even with the inner-eye, the interpretation and the use of Inner-eye technology in ICTS Europe is by human.
He disclosed that it is essential that countries emphasise also on human intelligence, noting that in every pattern of human endeavour, what has brought progress has always been man.
“So, there is need for us to get technology but also train our people, get them interested. Nothing beats human intelligence. You can have all sorts of security personnel at the airport, or at other places. They interact, they hear, they interpret. So, we take that on board as well as the use of technology.”
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